Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday vetoed a bill that sought to provide low-interest loans to local governments impacted by this year’s deadly winter storm and accused Senate staffers of committing unconstitutional and potentially criminal acts with the legislation.
But the basis for Reeves’s allegations of criminal action is inaccurate.
“The plainly unconstitutional (and possibly criminal) act of the person or persons that attempted to surreptitiously change a material (and negotiated) term of Senate Bill 2632 is unconscionable and calls into question the validity of every bill that I have signed into law this session,” Reeves wrote in his veto message.
The legislation Reeves vetoed attempted to give cities and counties devastated by Winter Storm Fern a loan using state tax dollars. The legislation stated that the Mississippi Emergency Management Association was to give local governments loans at 1% at an annual interest rate after federal emergency relief is provided to the state.
But Reeves said he negotiated with legislators that it should have been a 1% monthly charge to local governments, instead of a 1% annual charge. Under what Reeves said he agreed to, governments would have been charged a 12% annual loan, instead of a 1% annual loan.
The governor’s office did not respond to follow-up questions seeking to clarify whether the governor is advocating for charging local governments a 12% annual interest rate.
After both chambers in the Capitol had already passed the legislation, legislative leaders told lawmakers that the word “monthly” was an inadvertent typo. Lawmakers unanimously voted to remove the word from the bill.
“Notably, without striking the word ‘monthly,’ the language would have resulted in a 12% interest rate charge to cities and counties rather than the clearly intended and unanimously adopted 1% rate,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said in a statement.
But Reeves is also claiming the method legislators used to take out the word “monthly” was malicious.
The governor received the bill on March 17, with the word monthly already removed. He alleges that it should not have occurred because the House and Senate did not agree to remove the word “monthly” until later that same day, after he had already received the bill.
He inaccurately claims Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, made the motion to remove the language on March 17.
But the person who asked the Senate to change the language was Sen. Tyler McCaughn, a Republican from Newton, on March 13. McCaughn, on March 13, clearly states the bill number and the reason for removing the word monthly.
On Tuesday, McCaughn said that for local governments hit by the storm, “charging 12% is like kicking somebody when they are down … I don’t get it.”
The governor did not respond to a follow-up question seeking clarification about why he alleged Bryan sought to remove the language and if he is planning to recant his allegations.
“Further, attacking and accusing a Senate staffer of committing a criminal act in a veto message is malicious, unnecessary and false,” Hosemann said.
Now that Reeves has vetoed the bill, it’s unclear if local governments still coping with damage and cleanup from the storm will receive any relief from the state. Lawmakers can override the governor’s veto, but it would require a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers to do so.
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